Bruce Springsteen on Prince: ‘I felt a great kinship’

Bruce Springsteen felt the impact of Prince’s death earlier this year as much as any musician who was inspired by his boundary pushing. And while Springsteen has paid tribute to the Purple One in concert, he opened up about just how much the iconic musician pushed him to explore new territory in a new interview.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Springsteen talked about how much Prince meant to him. “It was a terrible shame,” he said about Prince’s sudden passing. “It was a great loss and a tragedy. I felt a great kinship with Prince.”

Springsteen mentioned how whenever he saw Prince perform live or on television it always made him sit back and wonder what he could be doing better. “And he was a guy, when I’d go to see him, I’d say, ‘Oh, man, OK, back to the drawing board,'” he explained. “There was a film of him on the Arsenio Hall show, where he plays a series of songs in a row. It’s just some of the greatest showmanship I’ve ever seen. And he knew everything. He knew all about it, and then could put it to work. Just since the Sixties and Seventies and your Sam and Daves and your James Browns, he’s one of the greatest showmen to come along. I studied that stuff a lot and put as much of it to use as I can with my talents. But he just took it to another level.”

Springsteen added, “Any death gives you renewed sight. It’s a part of what the dead pass on to us. A chance to look at our lives and look at the world again. It’s just a powerful experience.”